KAFULA'S ESSENTIALS- a short story collection

'KAFULA'S ESSENTIALS' is a collection of 10 short stories that depict the life, culture, tradition of a cross section of people and communities. Below are snippets of the great stories that you get to read in the book. The book is available on Amazon.com and in bookstores in Zambia.

77 Steps

There it stood, stalwart! St Mark’s Cathedral looked back at him. It was as if it had been waiting for this day. Waiting for him! It towered over him, daring him, intimidating. Yet he was not afraid. He was angry, very angry. He was ready to hit back. The grey building had brightly coloured narrow windows, which made the building come alive. Without them, the cathedral would have just been another ugly structure in an affluent neighbourhood. He swept his eyes all the way to the roof. It did not appear as attractive as before. The huge cross right at the top of the building looked like it was about to ascend into the clouds. ‘Golgotha,’ he thought, and winced… Mabvuto’s mouth tightened. He clenched his teeth. His feelings towards the building went beyond the huge oak doors. They penetrated the thick walls to what was carefully hidden inside. He held the building responsible for causing him so much pain. His mother had called him ‘Mabvuto, meaning troubles’, and he had lived true to the reputation of his name. He had driven past St Mark’s every morning on his way to work. Each time, its huge oak doors were shut. They were resolute...

DESOLATE ALTARS

…Just then she felt someone waking her up. It was Shadreck; she had not heard him come in. She looked at the clock; it was three in the morning. She sat up and looked at him, still confused by her dream. Shadreck stood in front of his wife, gazing at her expressionless. From the look of things, he was just arriving or had he been standing there for a while?

He threw some papers at her and said, “I don’t expect you to contest that. “He hesitated and then added, “I want you out of my life; you are like an obnoxious weed. Felicia and the kids will be moving in soon. Don’t do anything to delay the process.” With that he walked out of the room, without giving Luombe an opportunity to respond…

o   Businesswomen (An extract from the story, ‘Kabwata Market’)

The days dragged to my next hair appointment. My mind filled with ideas about how girls like Melinda can be helped. I am incensed by the lack of political will by government to provide opportunities for girls like her. Whatever the circumstances, they are victims of a government that hardly creates opportunities for the youths. What a society! I sigh as I grudgingly accept Mwape’s hands in my hair. Where is Angela? I can’t see Melinda either. Today is not very busy but customers are coming slowly, perhaps in my eagerness to hear more about Melinda I came too early. We are joined by a middle aged woman; her skin was once bleached with creams, when she stopped using the creams, it was as though thunder and lightning had struck her and the Sun had not been merciful either.

“Ah business iyi”, she has a very hoarse voice and no one responds, maybe we are waiting to hear what business she means and what could have happened. She pulls out a bottle of beer and I stare, ‘isn’t it too early for that madam?  But let us hear about your business’. Just as she is about to continue with her complaint, she receives a phone call.

“Eh, nili ku salon”, she listens, “pa Kabwata”. She listens again, “bwela chabe naiwe mwana”. She has invited whoever is on the other side of the line to join her at the salon. Good! I fidget in my seat. The more the merrier, I think; now we will get to hear all the gory details of this woman’s business. The friend arrives a few minutes later. She is equally middle aged with ‘toasted’ skin too. She has a bottle of mosi...

‘Ok, this is going to be a great story’, I think almost aloud.

“Mwana – uyu mulandu ukoselako che” the first one starts.

“Iwe, nina ku uza, ati tiye ku ng’anga- ija yaku Kafue ili na mpavu”. This must be a serious business gone wrong, for them to have wanted to seek a witchdoctor’s intervention?

“Awe mwandi, you are right.”

“But I think that DPP – tika mu dyesa mo che, you think it can’t be wash out?” the first one asks.

“Mmmm”, murmurs her friend. “The problem is that Mr. Kabwe has been transferred- you know that one used to literally ‘feed’ from my palm and I could tell him to do anything for me”.

“But mwana I told you when we arrived in Thailand to be careful with Carol. That one has minyama too much!” They are now both on the fourth bottles of alcohol and clearly getting tipsy and forgetting that they are in public and I could be... what? A patriot? With so much corruption in the country, there are very few good citizens who would sum the courage to report such deeds to the police.

‘Thailand’, can only spell one kind of business. Oh, the trouble you are in women.

“I was careful mwandi”, the first one is red eyed now and adds, “I just don’t know how that stuff was loaded into my container”.

Too bad I grimace. Just then, Angela brightens up my morning. She has been at the clinic, “malaria she complains”.

“I’m sorry”, I say. Perhaps I can hear what I really came for…

THE ERROR OF TEXTING IS UPON US

 

One thing that puts me off is seeing a text with words like 'dis' instead of 'this' or 'ze' instead of 'the' and so on, some words that I cannot even decipher. Of course, I am old school. I believe in complete words and sentences. I find pleasure in seeing correct spellings and good use of grammar. The challenge with the modern generation is that they have not learned how to define the text language from proper words. The former has strayed to the essay, application letter and curriculum vitae. You can even see some of it in a manuscript that is supposed to find its way to the Zambian market for other people to read. When we were young, we used to develop encoded language for the purpose of hiding information from our elders. That was the only reason. When it was time for school, the language became formal. The vocabulary that was exchanged in play grounds did not cross over to the classroom. In fact, in those days, economising of words was so good that even a telegram which was one of the first forms short messaging, was not compromised on quality.

 

Yet, today the overuse of the new shortened forms have down-graded the quality of writing. With the coming of the short messaging system contractions have lost their place and abbreviations and acronyms have since disappeared. What happened to words like aren’t, you’re, didn’t, won’t, etc. There used to be common abbreviations that could be used without offending anyone; std. for standard or s/holder for shareholder or stakeholder, ltd. for limited.

The problem with today’s short forms is that they do not have a place in formal writing. Additionally, the words are not commonly understood and seem to be limited to regions or cultures. For instance, the recent derivation of lol or Laugh Out Loud, in the local Bemba language cannot be used anywhere else. The relentless usage of text language has ushered in new way of writing. The question is, should this kind of writing be given a formal place?

Communication devices are equipped to keep a user as close as possible to the proper way of writing however, with time, the software meant for auto correct, spell check and auto spell adapt to the new words that are insistently types.

Another thing that irritates me when I receive a text message is when words are misplaced and misused. The consistent mix-up of homophones (words that have the same pronunciation) and homographs (words that are spelt the same way but do not have the same meaning). The misplacement of synonyms (words that have similar meaning) and antonyms (words that have opposite meanings). Common examples in Zambia; ‘the, there, they, their’ or ‘raise up your hand’ or ‘where, were, we’re’ or ‘leave, live’ etc.

English is not our first language but it remains the official mode of communication. This being the case, there is a small percentage of tolerating mistakes that seep into English as a result of first language interference. However, Zambia belongs to a global village and if we have to head ‘Toward a Zambian genre’, we must be able to tell our stories in manner that the rest of the world can understand and appreciate what we are communicating. The most unfortunate part is that even when we decide to use our own languages to write, we fall short on quality as most young people cannot even spell most local words. So whether you choose English or vernacular to write, use words properly, write grammatical sentences and get the spellings right.

TOWARD A ZAMBIAN GENRE : A ZAMBIAN GENRE

TOWARD A ZAMBIAN GENRE : A ZAMBIAN GENRE

A ZAMBIAN GENRE

On literary arts in Zambia-focus on fiction writing

 

M

ost countries in Africa have effectively shared their fundamental nature through works of art. Countries like Zimbabwe, Nigeria, South Africa, Ghana, just to mention but a few, have developed specific genres of fiction over the years, rendering this group of countries leaders in African literature. Nigeria and South Africa for instance has gone from the script to the big screen, leaving Zambia trailing far behind.

Zambia does not have a specific genre of fiction that she can be identified with. Any form of literature especially prose, drama and poetry should be a conduit for the transmission of people’s culture, language, religion, traditional values and any other aspect that defines their lifestyle and evolution. In the absence of sound literary identification, a country is likely to experience gaps in the development of the things that describe its core existence. Nations have preserved their history, morals, beliefs and customs through writing. The absence of Zambian fiction writing has contributed to a large extent the lack of proper documentation of its cultural development and the transmission of such cultural beliefs through the passing of time. ‘If the current Zambian authors are anything to go by, Zambia is still miles away from literary autonomy. There is a notable dearth of authentic Zambian authors’. ^[1]. It can be said that the present generations are easily swayed by so called western cultures because of the absence of a strong literature that should have otherwise transmitted the beliefs that should act as a backbone of cultural identity in every generation.   

Where are we coming from? Despite the few collections of fiction, the country can still trace its literary history back to the colonial days, when selected Zambian die-hards, put together some work and had them published.  However, the lack of documentation makes it very difficult for some of these works to be traced. By the 1960s, the likes of Steven A. Mpashi had published a few books that people still refer to as being the most entertaining stories that were narrated with such great skill. ^[2] There were also other colonial writers like Fwanyanga Mulikita. By the 1970s, there were only about twelve known published works of fiction.

One would ask, what has been the challenge for Zambia? Is it the lack of authors? Could it be that there is nothing to write about? Every country has something to say about itself.  Recently, there has been a rise in Zambian writers both within the country and in the diaspora. Although growing at a slow rate, there is literary potential in the country. The problem has not really been who or what to write but the issues lie deeply in the lack of support systems for those who aspire to take up this noble undertaking. Zambia for instance has a young publishing industry. The existence of private publishing companies can only be traced to the 1990s, when Zambia’s economy was liberalised. Before then only one publishing house had the monopoly, Kenneth Kaunda Publishing House and priority then was the provision of educational materials to schools in the post independent era. With the coming of private publishing companies like Macmillan and Longman, the situation has not improved because the publishing costs are still very high. In recent times, more publishing companies have been established and they mostly want to survive on a guaranteed education market. Besides, without regulatory bodies, the quality of material goes unchecked more often.

Some individual writers have opted to self-publish. With the internet providing so many opportunities, several works have found themselves on the open market and sadly some are substandard. Well, even if someone succeed at publishing an excellent piece, there are still more hurdles to jump; the poor reading culture and low literacy rates. If we are to head ‘Toward a Zambian Genre’, the writing industry must be made a reality for those who are ready to take it up. Both government and the private sector must invest in making the journey from the script to the book shelf a reality.

LITERACY AND TECHNOLOGY

It has been deemed the age of technology and rightly so because practically everything in the world today is being led by speed, gadgets and the internet. The digital era has spun the way people look at the world. In fact there is so much to read, watch and listen to that it has raised a red flag. Generally, there is a high rate of abuse of the media age.  A lot of misinformation can now be communicated or damage caused through a simple mobile device. The use of social media has become a ‘bone of contention’, is it a good or bad thing? The amount of pornography that is being shared carelessly is shocking. Bullying has now infiltrated the internet. There is a serious concern that the values of learning and teaching are being diluted by the click of a button.

The United Nations Agency reports that more than 3 billion people in the world are now using the internet (UNA report 2015). ZICTA (2016) reports that 6.1 million people are internet users. The question is what are the majority of Zambians using the internet for? Of course, the positive side is access to knowledge but what else is being accessed? What impact does all this information have on the younger population, on the school boy or girl? If you take time to read some comments on some social media pages you will get a clear picture that literacy and technology are closely linked. Of course, you will get a headache just trying to read through the misspelt words, ungrammatical sentences and vulgar language, which is a clear indicator of literacy levels of those who have access to the internet. Most mobile devices have in-built dictionaries and spellers but the question is how many make use of this technology?

Access? It would be interesting to get details of what percentage of the 6.1 million are aged below 16 years, the critical developmental stage of childhood and the most vulnerable. The education sector has had its fair share of the battle between good and evil in as far as internet access is concerned. Much as educators wish to promote the usage of the many opportunities on the internet, protecting children from straying to illegal and dangerous sites overturns their good intentions. The cellular phone is the main culprit. In the modern age when parents want to keep in touch with their children all day, the schools suffer the consequences of children brining their mobiles to school. First of all, it is seen as a distraction to the learning period. Secondly, the cellular phone is the main source of transmitting pornography and opens doors to cyber bullying that parents are busy complaining about. Let us just leave this thought here; to buy or not to buy your child a mobile phone?

Literacy? There is a wealth of information on the internet. It is an open library, there is a lot of education materials. But what about the other information sites, what about social media? The minimum age to open a social media account is set at 18 years and according to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), a child is a boy or girl below the age of 18 years. Yet, there are social media groups for school going children. Here is where the problem begins. Literacy skills on these groups leave much to be desired. The jargon that has now strayed into school essays has clearly devalued the quality of reading and writing. That we have a generation that cannot spell or give simple directions to where they live, is surely a source of concern.

We cannot deny access to technology for anyone. However, parents need to do more to support the efforts of educators to uphold the value of education and to promote good values and ethics in as far as utilization of technology is concerned. For example, if you buy your child a mobile device or a computer, get interested to know what they are doing with that piece of technology.

Should we ban social media platforms? What is more important is to sensitize people on the positive usage of the internet, especially social media. If we are to head ‘Toward a Zambian Genre’, we must take advantage of this grand opportunity to develop our literary abilities. Positive use of technology is individual responsibility. Rather than read jokes and poorly constructed sentences on social media, look for pages and sites that can help you build your literacy skills.

RELIGION AND LITERACY

Of late, there has been a rise of prophetic activities in Zambia. The influx of so called ‘prophets’, locally called ‘ma profita’ has brought in an ‘era of deception’. Some people have observed that all the magicians and witchdoctors have infiltrated the church. One of the most recent stories centered on members of a congregation being asked to place their bank account numbers on the ‘altar’ so that the prophet could ‘pray’ for miracle money to drop into each one’s account. Fascinating! Wouldn’t the country have been wealthy by now? The prophet would have just ‘prayed’ for gold and money to drop into the national treasury. But before we get carried away with a quick fix solution to our economic woes let’s get the facts right.

Religion is ra general term that refers to the belief in and worship of a superhuman, controlling power, especially a personal god. Christianity is the religion that is based on the person and teaching of Jesus Christ. A Christian is a follower of Jesus Christ or is someone who follows the life and teachings of Christ and is connected to Him by making an open declaration. A prophet is said to be a proclaimer of the will of God. A miracle is an extraordinary and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore attributed to a divine agency. Magic is the power of influencing events by using mysterious or supernatural forces. Witchcraft is the practice of magic, especially black magic and the use of spells. A witchdoctor is a magician accredited with powers of healing, divination and protection against the magic of others. (Google Dictionary)

Photo credit: Kafula Mwila

 

Now that we are all on the same page with definitions we can ably agree that literacy has significant impact on the growth of religion and Christianity. One of the key things that religious leaders should endeavor to do is to invest in the development of the literacy of their congregants. Christianity is very strong in Zambia- more so that it is openly declared as a Christian nation.



Photo credit: Kafula Mwila

The question is with high illiteracy levels, how many of the church goers have a clear understanding of the various truths that are presented to them every week. In the major cities and in churches that are in the upper class areas, illiteracy would not come up as a hindrance to the success of religion. What about in the high density areas, the shanty compounds where most of the so called ‘prophets’ have strongholds? Do all the churches there preach significantly enough to sway their members away from the scourge that has hit the country in the recent past? For how is it that one cannot differentiate between miracle and magic? How is it that one cannot see that being asked to engage in sexual orgies in full view of a congregation is immoral? The hordes of people, especially women, taking part in these outrageous events is now alarming! If more people could read, write and understand the same scriptures that are abused by their manipulators, they would not for instance discontinue taking medication in favour of ‘miracle’ water. How can anyone be so naïve to believe that money can suddenly appear into one’s bank account without them making any effort?  

 

Photo credit: Kafula Mwila

As a nation, we must draw lessons from the preceding era of the prosperity gospel when people were duped into giving their last ngwee or even property. This era led to a lot of laziness among some people who thought that by giving to the man or woman of God, the good Lord would bring about miraculous riches. After this phase came the ‘prophetic’ era. Many woke up to the fact that they were being swindled, therefore, the style changed. The ‘prophets’ crawled from the shadows like phantoms and infiltrated the religious circles with all sorts of tricks to squeeze gullible followers. The gimmicks vary, short of being called magic or witchcraft, as long as there is a willing soul desperate enough to do anything to get out of dire situations.

For those who follow Christ and his teachings- there is need for them to have the ability to read and write the teachings in order for them to begin to understand how they can apply them in their day to day lives. The church therefore has a key role in not only building the moral fibre of the communities they operate in but also to lift up the literacy standards of their people. Someone who fully comprehends the scriptures will not be cheated. “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11. The scripture is self-explanatory and emphasizes that religion should define its role in the lives of the believers, beyond the four walls of the building where people meet to worship. It calls for the church to join in the efforts of government and civil society to lift the standards of the citizens through literacy. If we are to head ‘Toward a Zambian Genre’, all citizens must be able to read and understand the times that we live in, so that they do not get cheated.

Photo credit: Kafula Mwila

 

PUBLISHING IN ZAMBIA

If you are a writer of fiction or non-fiction, you will agree that it is really great to get published. Receiving an award and seeing book sales soaring is every writer's dream. However, in Zambia, many manuscripts just end up on shelves, gathering dust and will probably never achieve these milestone. Many potential authors have asked how to get past the ‘publishing hurdle’. Publishing in this country is not easy. The whole process is complicated, worsened by the lack of support structures for writers.

What does it mean to publish? A published writer is one who has written a book, a story, a play, or indeed any work of fiction or  non-fiction and has had such work printed and distributed for public access. It means to make your work public, letting people know that you have written and that your work is ready for reading. 

Photo credit: Kafula Mwila

Where does this whole process begin and what are the hurdles along the way? When a writer is satisfied that a manuscript is complete, they need to get it to a publisher. It is at this point that the woes of most Zambian writers begin.

For a start, there are few publishers in the country. These laregely focus on publishing academic works. So if you have written a text book for school or college, then you might just get lucky, that is if your book is approved by the curriculum development authorities. Otherwise, you join the struggle of the fiction writers. Local publishers have preference for books that they can easily sell in schools and tertiary institutions.  So where does that leave the one who writes for the greater good of humanity? Out in the cold mostly, to fend for themselves. If such a writer succeeds to publish, then they have a challenge of marketing their books to a nation with a poor reading culture. This has also been compounded by low literacy levels with less than 40% of the population being able to read and write. 

A fiction writer has no choice but to seek other publishing routes. What are these alternatives and how accessible are they to the ordinary writer? It is important to recognise that there are Zambian writers who live abroad. For them 

publishing options are plenty. That is one route that local writers can take, get a publisher outside Zambia. The question is, how many can afford to do that? One has to be ready to pay taxes to bring  books into the country, and get back to the marketing difficulties. The major book retailers also have their desires, just like the local publishers. Also, when your book is published abroad how do you keep track of the sales out there? 

The other alternative, something that has been trending in the recent past is self-publishing, but it is not the easier way out either. In the first place, it is totally self-financed. Secondly, the author has to do their own marketing. It is like merging an author and publisher into one.  Then there is need to ensure that the manuscript is edited properly. Finding a good editor is like looking for 'a needle in a haystack'. This has led to the production of sub-standard books. Many writers skip the editing stage to minimise on costs. Then there is the lack of illustrators- an aspect that has made many writers depend on un-established graphics designers. 

If one gets past all these obstacles, they are faced with the colossal cost of printing. Some Zambians have opted for printing services outside the country but pay dearly for importing their own books back into the country. Self-publishing? Well, considering the aforementioned and the fact that generally, self-published work is looked down upon in some circles, it is an option one would wish to consider cautiously. However, we cannot completely discard it, as many self-published books have ended up saving the day.  It has contributed to the development of writing in Zambia. 

What about online publication? The answer to the question is yet another question; how many Zambians have access to a computer, let alone the internet?  Only a small section of of the population has access to a computer (according to ZICTA). That being the case, how many will get to read from this platform? In fact, online publication is the cheapest and the simplest as long as the work is of standard. It is an opportunity to reach a wider audience, beyond the borders of Zambia. But who gets to check what goes and what is completely unpalatable? According to a Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) Zambia, ‘State of the Media’ for the quarter January 1 to March 31, 2012, there is no specific regulation for online publication such as a law that must require online publishers to register with any government department the way newspapers do. The current situation allows anyone to set up an online publication and dump whatever stuff they wish to publish without anyone checking. MISA Zambia has since urged the state to come up with a way that will ensure that anyone setting up an online publication registers before launching to publish. The absence of a perfect check system has allowed a situation where anyone, even if they are not well vest in fiction publishing, to go ahead and dilute the good works being done by professionals in this area. 

Photo credit: Kafula Mwila

If we are to head 'Toward a Zambian Genre', a collection of non-fiction works about Zambia, by Zambians, the publishing industry must be developed to accommodate this kind of work. Government should also play a role in making publishing a reality for its citizens. Unless many of the issues raised are addressed,  we are far from realising our dream, yet there is hope because Zambians have started writing.